The Biggest Takeaways from UNC Head Coach Bill Belichick

Because the early stages of fall camp are non-contact, coaches are focusing more on alignment, assignments and effort than making hard decisions about depth charts because the players are not in pads yet. While certain positions naturally allow for quicker evaluations, others — especially along the line of scrimmage — require full-padded reps.

“When the competition starts later in the week and next week, then those things will start to shape up, especially at that position, the receivers in the DBs, where there's less contact involved, maybe a little more competitive there in terms of who can get open, who can cover and so forth,” Belichick said. “But for the big guys, you know, those skills will really be evaluated much more closely once we're actually able to do them and also make sure that everybody knows what they're doing."

The Impact of Moses Cabrera

During the offseason, Belichick hired another longtime confidant from his NFL days, Moses Cabrera. Cabrera was part of the Patriots’ strength and conditioning staff from 2011 to 2023. After serving as an assistant, he was promoted to head strength and conditioning coach in 2016 and made an immediate impact, helping the Patriots post the fewest players on injured reserve that season en route to a Super Bowl title.

"Moses had a huge impact on my career and on the teams that I've coached where he's been the head strength coach,” Belichick said. “He's on a great job of training players and also getting them back on the field after they've had some type of medical setback.”

Offensive lineman Austin Blaske and defensive lineman Leroy Jackson also explained how much their conditioning and nutrition has improved since Cabrera has taken over. The players are feeling more confident thanks to Cabrera’s work and there’s a strong trust between both parties.

“He's worked with several thousand players and is able to train them regardless of what limitations they might have,” Belichick said. There's multiple ways to do different exercises and so forth, so we're able to train all parts of the body and he's increased speed, strength, and explosiveness.”

Tackling, Anyone?

Not to be beat a dead horse, but the a major theme was North Carolina being disallowed to put on full pads as it has affected the evaluation process. It’s not because the Tar Heels are in trouble for anything as all teams in the NCAA are not allowed to do so as well

Due to NCAA regulations, teams are limited in when they can introduce shoulder pads, full pads and live contact in fall camp. The group that’s the most affected by this are the linemen

Players that play closer to the line of scrimmage experience the most contact and linemen absorb the most immediate collision out of anybody on the field at one time. Belichick elucidated why evaluations about the offensive and defensive lines will become clearer once hitting starts in the next couple of days.

"That's their game. It's contact, it's leverage, it's footwork position,” Belichick said. These guys line up this far (a few feet) from each other and (clap) it all happens pretty quickly. And without pads and without full contact, it's kind of hard to see exactly how that's going to until you get to that point. Again, so much of interior offensive and defensive line play is based on pad level and leverage. And until you actually are going, it's kind of hard to tell exactly how it's going to turn out. Once everything is on, then it's a lot easier to see."

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